Water Falls Post-Visit Lesson

In this lesson, students will learn about hurricanes as a natural hazard. They will learn about technologies that have been developed to mitigate their devastating effects.

This lesson plan is for teachers to use with students after they have seen the Science on a Sphere film, “Water Falls.” The emphasis of this lesson is on deepening students’ understanding of how and why we measure precipitation across the globe. Students will look at TRMM data gathered during Hurricane Sandy, and will learn how this data proved essential in helping scientists to forecast where the hurricane was heading and how much precipitation they might expect. Students will also learn how GPM will enable the collection of new information on hurricanes. This lesson is expected to take about 45 minutes. It has been developed for middle school students, but can be adapted to meet the needs of younger or older participants.